1.2: The Night Shift
The second session of The Empress' New Fleet. Played in September 2015. The Party * Icaea Hoia, Human Factotum * Agernásson IV, High Elf Ranger * Trettos, Human Warlock * Gorn Le'Lyana, Human Ardent Journal The sun is shining as the party walks down the path. After a while the tied-up pirate they're dragging around opens his mouth: ”Hey, I know where the boss went. If you let me loose, I can lead you there.” Ag: ”Where exactly?” ”We have, uh, a small hiding place further down the coast. I'm sure that's the place.” The party has a long discussion about the prisoner's offer within full earshot of him: ”Should we cut off a limb or something?” ”Nah, we can just shoot him if he tries anything...” ”Yeah, but what if he's secretly a mage?” Finally the anxious lad speaks up again: ”Uh, never mind! There's no hideout and I have no idea about the boss. I'd rather take my chances with the guard than with y'all.” The mildly frustrated party drops him off at the city gates, where two guards have been waiting. They lead him to jail and say the party is expected at the harbor market. Upon arrival they see the Vice-Commander, standing by the docks, shoo away the officers he was talking to and beckon the party to approach. VC: ”Well, you're still in one piece. Did you find anything?” Tr: ”Yup, the ship was there and so were the pirates. You want the flag?” Ag: ”Should we just sell it?” Go: ”Sell a blank piece of cheap cloth? For what, a beer?” Tr: ”Now that I think about it, how does this flag prove anything in the first place?” Ag: ”Hey, can I make a parachute out of this?” The Vice-Commander takes the flag in his hands and eyes it for a few seconds. As he tosses it aside, it suddenly combusts and burns to ash before even hitting the ground. Gasps and accusations of sorcery fill the air. VC: ”Well done. I suppose you're ready for your actual job now...” he grunts and points at a walled-off area in another part of the harbor. ”That there is an Imperial shipyard. Salmo recently received a big and important order from the the Empress herself, and it's been going well enough for now. However, there has been more and more suspicious activity in the vicinity, and far too many mishaps to be considered accidents. Now, I'd take care of it myself, but...” Tr: ”Not your job, eh?” VC: ”Yes, indeed. The shipyard is the Empress' personal property, and we city guards thus have no right to operate there, but the crown's own security arrangements are terrible. Even then, it'd be trouble for both the city and us guards if anything went wrong, so I want you to make sure it doesn't.” Ag: ”Can you be more specific?” VC: ”Nothing scary, just keep a lookout inside the compound for the next few nights. Here's the key to the back door; and remember, this is all strictly unofficial. This conversation never happened.” The Vice-Commander starts to walk away and takes a chug of whiskey from a hip flask, but turns around to say one more thing to Icaea, who has been keeping quiet: ”Oh yes, some priests have been running around looking for you. Something about work shifts and stolen wands. I suggest you check in with them.” Gulping loudly, Icaea waves goodbye to the others and heads for the Temple of Wavestrider . The rest of the party sells some of their loot for pocket change; Gorn decides to get rid of his old greatsword and use the orcish pirate's falchion instead. They then hang around the city before heading to the shipyard after dark. Icaea hasn't arrived yet, but they'll just have to do it without him. This shipyard is but one of many: a drydock with three separate basins, all of which have unfinished ships in them, connected to the sea through floodgates. There are ladders and rudimentary elevators into each basin. The ground level is mostly one big courtyard with tall walls of stone, containing a variety of warehouses, an office of sorts and many stacks of timber and other materials. Trettos, Gorn and Agernásson find good positions where they can see the entire area without being too visible themselves. All the workers have left and the only guard at hand seems to be a feeble, sleepy old man who spends most of his time inside the office, the light of his lantern shining faintly through the windows. Not much happens all night. At one point there's a lot of racket outside the walls, but Trettos – peering from a rooftop – sees that it's just a fight between two drunken dwarves with a crowd cheering them on, soon dispersed by the guards. As the sun starts to rise and the city wakes up, the yawning party sneaks back out and spends most of the day sleeping before heading back the next evening. It's a clear moonlit night. Sometime after midnight the bored watchmen are alerted by the light inside the cabin going out all of a sudden. Agernásson peeks through the window but doesn't see anything inside. The party barely has time to slip back into cover before a group of four dark-cloaked figures clambers up from the sea, onto the floodgates. Without a moment's hesitation, they start running along the walls separating the basins, clearly headed for the buildings. Agernásson is the first to act. He abandons his concealing stack of planks and charges the nearest infiltrators, who he now recognizes as two halflings with dog-like masks. He intercepts them on the narrow pathway and swings his chain, which is easily dodged. While the halflings continue to duck and weave, a man in a dragon mask casts a fierce blast of wind that sends Agernásson stumbling head-first into one of the basins. Gorn jumps out to engage the two halflings, but has little luck trying to actually hit them. Trettos flings a couple eldritch blasts at the fourth, fish-masked attacker, who simply dodges them, ignores him and runs straight into the nearest warehouse, breaking the door open with his spear. Rather than give chase, Trettos focuses on the mage, who has now descended into another basin. He responds with a painful scorching ray ''of his own but is soon trapped in Trettos' eldritch bindings, ruining any attempts at spellcasting. As a last resort, he tries to charm'' Trettos, but fails pathetically. Trettos just watches from above as the man is finished off by his blast's residual damage. This brief triumph is interrupted by the telltale crash and whoom of alchemist's fire ringing out from the warehouse. Fish-mask crashes out through the window, brandishes his spear and starts a pitched battle against both Gorn and Trettos. The dog-masked halflings take this opportunity to enter the office, but Agernásson has made it out of the basin and is hot on their trail. He reaches the office just in time to see the pair grab a bunch of random documents from the desk and dash out the open door, which leads out of the whole compound (there's no trace of either the old man or his lantern). He chases them and manages to trip the more wounded halfling. The two companions give each other a solemn nod: one sprints off down the street, while the one Agernásson caught lets out the best war shout his little lungs can manage and leaps at him with a shortsword in hand. The tiny blade scrapes against his armor. Agernásson smirks and finishes the little bugger off with his axe, only to look up and see the other one disappear into a narrow sewer. Meanwhile, the drawn-out melee between the others has moved onto the roof of the burning warehouse. The fish-masked man has proven a worthy opponent, all three combatants have received their share of wounds and the situation is quite literally heating up. Gorn aims a mighty swing of his falchion at the enemy's face, slicing the mask in half and revealing... Go: ”Icaea?” Party: *''laughter*' ''DM: ”Uh...” ...Icaea, with glazed eyes, a furious scowl and a rather nasty cut on his face. Go: ”What?!” Tr: ”Wow, I actually DIDN'T see that coming...” It is readily apparent that he is under some kind of domination spell. As the party hesitates, Icaea senses his opportunity. He gathers his last strength to jump backwards and toss his eight-foot longspear through the air, piercing Trettos' knee. As Trettos stumbles limply, Gorn hits Icaea with a non-lethal concussive blast, finally knocking him out. There's no time to gawk at the situation, though. The fire has been noticed and people will surely start showing up soon, so the party dumps the two bodies in their Bag of Holding and flees the area, Icaea and Trettos being carried by the others. They show up at the Manticore Inn, receive a nonchalant greeting from the man at the counter and retreat upstairs, where they heal their wounds and scan Icaea for clues. The only thing they find, though, is a small silver medallion with spiral engravings, clearly radiating magic... They take it off, but decide to hold onto it for now. In the morning, the party (apart from the still-unconscious Icaea) comes down to the lobby, only to find it completely deserted apart from the Vice-Commander, who definitely doesn't look very pleased. Ag: ”You knew where we're staying?” VC: ”Of course I did! But that's irrelevant. Sit down.” He sighs deeply. VC: ”So I presume last night wasn't exactly a grand success, huh?” Ag: ”What do you mean? Four people snuck in, but we took care of them.” VC: ”By which you mean you let half the shipyard burn down, lost a lot of important documents...” Ag: ”Well...” VC: ”...and left two of the basins flooded?” Tr: ”What?” Go: ”Someone must have done that after we left!” The Vice-Commander rubs his temples and takes another drink. VC: ”Our working relationship isn't exactly off to a good start. This is the biggest setback of the project so far. Please tell me you at least found some clues? There were no bodies.” Tr: ”Yeah, we took them. Uh, Icaea was with the attackers and fought us under some kind of spell. We found this on him; it probably has something to do with it.” VC: ”You...took the bodies? Hmm... these markings look somehow familiar. I'll try to look into it: for now, just try to lay low, alright? And keep an eye on that friend of yours. I'll contact you if – if – I have something more for you to do.” Ag: ”Hey, what about our reward?” VC: ”After all this? Really? Just be glad I'm not charging you. Drop the bodies at the guard station, would you?” The Vice-Commander walks out, leaving the party to wonder what to do next. Category:Lorelm Category:Kampanjat Category:Content Category:English